The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.

Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.

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'llo, folks. (Pic Heavy Post)

I've been running a DnD campaign for a few years now, and my favorite part of DMing has always been scribbling up maps. My players have always given me a hard time about my over-indulgence in my self proclaimed cartography fetish, so imagine my delight at stumbling across a community of like-minded individuals here.
We play a weekly game, so my prep time is always extremely limited, but I've come up with a system for myself that lets me crank out a couple of functional dungeon, town, or wilderness maps in an evening's work - along with writing the next section of the campaign and populating the nooks and crannies with the usual suspects.
Of course, most of these are never seen by the players - things unfolding as they do in blue dry erase pen on the battlemat. Only occasionally can I find the excuse to work up a slightly more detailed map - drawing it up by hand, scanning, and tweaking/coloring in CS4.
At any rate, I look forward to learning from the experienced GMs and cartographers out there, and C&C, even of the most brutal variety, is always appreciated.
Without further ado - here's a few of my quick n' dirty night-before-the-game maps for perusal. As I said, noone sees these maps but me, so the coloring is just to help me remember the intended atmosphere when making up descriptions on the fly.

Like this little port town the PCs came upon as it burnt to the ground in the wake of a raiding party.

A mid-level dungeon map.

The ubiquitous crypt.

An eerie, crystalline-stalagmite studded cave system.

And a small, fortified frontier town experiencing an unexpected population boom of war refugees, ramshackle wooden buildings being thrown up outside of it's walls.